- This might be the best Zelda in the series, next to Ocarina of Time.Much like Final Fantasy II (IV), Doom (a first person shooter), Super Mario World, Super Mario Bro's 3, and most other Super NES games I own, my parents got me into this game (particularly my dad). I've been playing this game and all those others ever since I was at least 4. I wasn't terribly good at any of them but I just played wherever my dad was in the game and that was still loads of fun. Those days provided a lot of memories for me and every time I play those parts in the games I always think back to the good old days. That's why games like this are so memorable. They're original, they're fun, and they are always the best in their series. Much like the Doom games. People hate Doom 3, obviously, and now that I read their reviews, I see why (and I didn't have any complaints about it until then). But the original Doom games were the best there were. No one can top those, because they were the originals. I know this wasn't the original Zelda, but it was made in the very early 90's (or late 80's, one or the other), and those were the days when video games were the most enjoyable. Nowadays companies try to just show off to other companies with games that feature just cool special effects and weapons and very poor gameplay and story (this isn't true for all games lately; Half Life, Half Life 2, Quake 2, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Zelda: The Wind Waker, Zelda: The Minish Cap, Final Fantasy VIII - X, Spyro The Dragon, Eternal Darkness, Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil 1 - 3, Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, Blade of Darkness, Final Fantasy Tactics, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Super Mario RPG, and several other games of the past decade, just to name a few, are very good). And this game is no exception from those really good ones. It's an original, and it's my personal favorite of the series. I used to play this one all the time with Final Fantasy IV and they might be the most memorable games from the Super NES for me aside from the Mario series. Speaking of Final Fantasy, the reason I didn't list VII in that list is because I just couldn't get into that game the way everyone else on Earth did. I'd much prefer any others in the FF saga over VII, simply because it totally loses its epic feel after you escape the city of Midgar. It got too confusing, I just found it impossible after a certain point (and they say FFIV is supposidly the hardest RPG ever made; I completed the GBA version in only 4 weeks, and I've had FFVII for eight years and I've never even made it halfway through the first disk). The reason is probably because it seems they made that game too much like real life. There's such a thing as too much realism, and certain parts of that game almost seem offensive ('mature' parts that I didn't understand until this past year because when I first played through them I was eight or nine years old). But the best Final Fantasy games are the ones that actually incorporate the 'fantasy' aspect, as FFVII did little of. I guess I shouldn't talk badly about it... I mean I did enjoy the first few hours of it at least. I currently don't own FFV or FFVI, or FFIII, but those are all coming to handheld systems soon. I'm thinking this summer they should be out, so that's when we should all be looking for them in stores. But anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. My point was, I like this game because it's so straight forward. Its story is somewhat simple, but is good enough that it keeps your interest. It's easy to follow and there's subtle aspects that are hard to notice until you REALLY look hard. For instance, early in the game if you go inside the thieves' hideout in Kakariko Village, the guy there tells you that it was owned by a bandit leader named Blind, who hated bright light. Later on, when you're well into your quest and in the Dark World, and you have to come back to the town for the fourth dungeon, the boss at the end hates bright light, and the dungeon is called Thieves' Town. I really never even noticed that until I played through this new GBA version and got to that part (also because I never got there in the original). Those little things just add to the overall experience, and do nothing but make it better. In this new version there's also an additional shop in the village that wasn't there before, containing an item that's a Golden Bee. I have yet to figure out how to buy it, since it won't let you. It makes me wonder what other little secrets they added that I never saw at first. There's a silvery red boomerang in the original game that my dad found and I still can't find in this version, or in the original, so I have a lot of exploring to do still. This game is massive, and it took me months to complete (and I consider myself a professional gamer). I'm also anxious for Super Mario RPG to come out on either Gameboy Advance or Nintendo DS soon, possibly as Super Mario Advance 5. It would also be great if Zelda: Ocarina of Time would arrive on Nintendo DS, since there's something wrong with my N64 controller which prevents me from making any further progress in the game on N64. I'm hoping the day will come when every Super NES, Playstation, and N64 game is on a handheld (particularly Final Fantasy VIII, IX, and X, and maybe even VII).
Ok, I've done little more than rant about my favorite video games and talked not much about this one. So, to sum up this game:
Graphics: 5 out of 5 (it all looks very realistic, even on the original)
Story: 4 out of 5 (no further comment)
Characters: 3 out of 5 (there's really only 1 main character other than Zelda, and that's Link)
Gameplay: 5 out of 5 (I only wish Link moved a little faster)
Music: 5 out of 5
ok, I guess that's it. It's an awesome game, and I reccomend it to anyone who's looking for real quality.
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